Wellcome Collection, a free museum and library in London, has announced its 2025 programme of exhibitions and installations, which focuses on disability and identity, signed and spoken languages and the health and climate impact on unclean water in the world. Plus, publications on the history of death and bereavement, acquiring disabilities, and the celebration of freshwater – our most precious resource.
About Wellcome Collection
The Wellcome Collection is a free museum and library dedicated to exploring health and human experience. It emphasises the importance of everyone’s experience of health. Through its collections, exhibitions, events, books, and online resources, it delves into the past, present, and future of health.
Located near Euston station in London and online, the Wellcome Collection offers free access to exhibitions, events, and its library. Visitors can also view items from its collections at no cost, though some materials may require advance booking.
Since opening in 2007, the Wellcome Collection has curated thousands of items related to health, medicine, and human experience, including rare books, artworks, films, videos, personal archives, and objects. It is part of Wellcome, a charitable foundation that supports science to build a healthier future for everyone.
Wellcome Collection 2025 exhibitions and installations
Zines Forever! DIY Publications and Disability Justice – 14th March – 14th September 2025 – Gallery 3 – Free
Zines Forever! DIY Publications and Disability Justice is a thought-provoking new display at Wellcome Collection exploring the role of DIY publications in sharing and shaping experiences of identity and disability.
Zines are self-published works in which makers share their personal experiences, feelings and ideas. Drawing from Wellcome Collection’s archive of over 1,800 zines themed around health, the display will explore the role of zines as an accessible, visual and sometimes playful means for expressing the complex, messy feelings that can arise in response to being or becoming disabled.
The display will also reveal how the making and sharing of zines can further disability activism and political resistance, serving as a vehicle for community building and mutual support whilst questioning what it means for an institution like Wellcome Collection to collect and preserve these often deeply personal, ephemeral items.
1880 THAT: Christine Sun Kim and Thomas Mader – 17th April – 16th November 2025 – Gallery 2 – Free
In Spring 2025, Wellcome Collection will present 1880 THAT, the first major London exhibition of artists Christine Sun Kim and Thomas Mader. Kim and Mader, artists based in Berlin, have been collaborating for over a decade to explore the possibilities and limitations of communication.
Their playful and thought-provoking works invite visitors to imagine new opportunities for understanding between signed and spoken languages, challenging social prejudices and hierarchies.
1880 THAT will bring together new commissions and recent works that use humour and wordplay to explore the idea of language as a home – an essential place of belonging – and what it means to live with the threat of losing one’s language.
The exhibition takes its name from an emphatic expression in American Sign Language, “THAT” used to add weight and significance to a statement. It references the 1880 ‘Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf’, held in Milan, where policymakers mandated the use of oral education for Deaf people, sidelining and effectively suppressing the use of sign language.
1880 THAT will reflect on the enduring impact of this pivotal event, which has shaped the global Deaf experience for over a century.
Thirst: In Search of Freshwater – 26th June 2025 – 1st February 2026 – Gallery 1 – Free
Opening in June 2025, Wellcome Collection will present Thirst: In Search of Freshwater, a major exhibition exploring our vital connection with freshwater as a source of life and an essential pillar of good health.
Spanning across time and cultures, from ancient Mesopotamia and Victorian London to contemporary Nepal and Singapore, the exhibition will explore how thirst is experienced by both living beings and land masses. It will also address the consequences of freshwater mismanagement around the world, from the spread of infectious diseases to amplifying the effects of climate change.
Featuring historical artefacts, contemporary materials and thought-provoking artworks, including three new commissions by Raqs Media Collective, Karan Shrestha and Feifei Zhou and Zahirah Suhaimi (SEACoast),
Thirst will offer moments of loss and challenge, as well as hope, joy and empowerment, reminding us of our individual and collective relationship with water.
Finger Talk: Cathy Mager – August – October 2025 – The Forum – Free
Finger Talk is a powerful British Sign Language-centred film installation by artist and curator Cathy Mager. Transforming Wellcome Collection’s Forum, Finger Talk will integrate archive film footage of the everyday lives, culture and traditions of the Deaf community over the last century with contemporary sign language performance to create a portal into the British Deaf experience.
The artwork seeks to challenge common perceptions of deafness by shifting the narrative from “loss” to “deaf gain” – an exploration of shared language, heritage and cultural identity within the BSL community. Accompanying the installation will be a series of deaf-led talks, events, workshops and performances, co-curated by Mager with a group of Deaf collaborators.
Wellcome Collection 2025 publications
No Ordinary Deaths: A People’s History of Mortality by Molly Conisbee – 1st May 2025
History is written by the A-listers’ deaths – the queens beheaded and archdukes assassinated. We hardly ever learn how ordinary folk met their end and with what consequences or consider how death has moulded our beliefs, politics and societies through time.
Historian and bereavement counsellor Molly Conisbee reveals how cycles of dying, death and disposal have shaped the lives of everyday people. This is a fascinating picture of the hopes, fears and wishes of our forebears.
To Exist As I Am: A Doctor’s Notes on Recovery and Radical Acceptance by Grace Spence Green – June 2025
At the age of twenty-two, Grace Spence Green’s spine was broken at the fourth thoracic vertebra. One day, she was in hospital supporting patients, the next, she was fighting for her own life.
To Exist As I Am chronicles her journey from a spinal injury patient to a qualified doctor and disabled activist, finding her way back to the wards and finding her tribe. This life-affirming reflection reframes disability and questions the value we place on independence in favour of interdependence, the rich networks of care that bind us together, and what love truly looks like.
Rather than yearning to be ‘fixed’, Grace shows how we might fight for change while embracing a joyous life exactly as we are.
Thirst: In Search of Freshwater by Various Authors – 26th June 2025
This urgent, evocative collection of writings celebrates the source of all life: freshwater, our most precious resource. Dive into the depths of a Berlin lake, journey from the Thames to the banks of the Nile, and meet Black Mary, the keeper of a lost 17th-century healing well in London. These are the vital myths and memories that flow through water.
Contributing writers include Vandana Shiva, Rebecca Solnit and Lucy Jones, who explore ecological despair and resilience, privatisation, pollution — and beauty.
Accessibility at Wellcome Collection
The Wellcome Collection aims to ensure accessibility and inclusivity for all visitors. Key features include step-free access, wheelchair-friendly facilities, and accessible toilets on every floor, including a Changing Places toilet.
Assistance dogs are welcome and induction loops are available for those with hearing impairments. There are also braille, large print and audio-described guides for visually impaired visitors.
For specific queries or tailored assistance, the venue encourages contacting its team in advance by calling 020 7611 2222 or emailing info@wellcomecollection.org.
For more details, visit the Wellcome Collection accessibility page.
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